[ESS] Splus7 and the bigdata library

[gerald.jean at dgag.ca]

Hello,

ESS 5.2.10 in Emacs 21.1.1 on a Solaris machine.

I am starting S+7 on the Solaris machine by setting
"inferior-S+3-program-name" in the following way in my .emacs file:

(add-hook 'ess-mode-hook
   (function (lambda()
             (setq-default inferior-S+6-program-name
                             "/actuaria/splus_app64/bin/Splus64")
             (setq-default inferior-S+3-program-name
                             "/actuaria/splus7_app/bin/Splus7")
...

then the ess' S+3 function will start S+7.  So far, so good.  I run into
problems when I am trying to attach the new S+ "bigdata" library.  Here is
the error I get:

> library(bigdata, pos = 3)
*** Error loading big data library: java not available: start S-PLUS with
'Splus -j' or 'Splus -g'
Problem in bd.internal.system.load.error(: Error loading big data library:
java not available: start S-PLUS with 'Splus -j' or 'Splus -g'
Use traceback() to see the call stack

Apparently I need to pass arguments to Splus7 to activate java before the
bigdata library can be attached.  If the error is ignored and the library
attached anyway by a second call to "library" it will attach, but running
the function "importData" with the "bigdata" argument set to "T" will
result in a NULL object.

Starting S+7 from a shell with the "-j" and "-headless" options will start
a Java Virtual Machine, attach the "spjava" library and then the bigdata
library can be attached successfully and data imported successfully.

I tried to look up the documentation of the ess variable
"inferior-Splus-args" but it says that the arguments will be passed only to
S+6?

Inferior Splus Args: Hide
   State: this option is unchanged from its standard setting.
String of arguments used when starting S. Hide
These arguments are currently passed only to S+6.

How then can I start S+7 with the arguments "-j" and "-headless" through
ESS.

Thanks for your time,

Gérald Jean
Conseiller senior en statistiques, Actuariat
télephone            : (418) 835-4900 poste (7639)
télecopieur          : (418) 835-6657
courrier électronique: gerald.jean at dgag.ca

"In God we trust, all others must bring data"  W. Edwards Deming